Disease suppressive soils offer effective protection to plants against infection by soil-borne pathogens, including fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, and nematodes. The specific disease suppression that operates in these soils is, in most cases, microbial in origin. Therefore, suppressive soils are considered as a rich resource for the discovery of beneficial microorganisms with novel antimicrobial a...

In recent years, the microbiome has been recognized as a key regulator of immune responses. Evidence suggests that changes in the microbiome can lead to chronic disease and even exacerbation of the disease. Impairment of innate immunity resulting from microbial incompatibility may worsen host susceptibility to infection and exacerbate chronic lung diseases. Specific microbes play a key role in ...

This is a very stimulating book, since in it the author discusses infectious processes in biochemical terms. He emphasizes not only what can be done to develop our understanding of microbial disease and host resistance mechanisms, but also shows how meagre our knowledge in this field really is. Early in the book Dubos points out that current infectious disease literature has "a quaint mid-ninet...

Alterations in gut microbial colonization during early life have been reported in infants that later developed asthma, allergies, type 1 diabetes, as well as in inflammatory bowel disease patients, previous to disease flares. Mechanistic studies in animal models have established that microbial alterations influence disease pathogenesis via changes in immune system maturation. Strong evidence po...

Humans have evolved along with the millions of microorganisms that populate their bodies. These microbes (10(14)) outnumber human cells by 10 to 1 and account for 3 × 10(6) genes, more than ten times the 25,000 human genes. This microbial metagenome acts as our "other genome" and like our own genes, is unique to the individual. Recent international efforts such as the Human Microbiome Project (...